Browse by Artist: HECKER, TIM

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Mirages
Label:	ALIEN8 RECORDINGS (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	ALIEN 047CD

2011 repress. "Tim Hecker's latest full length, Mirages, is a lesson of darkness, a midnight whisper revealing its true essence to the listener: an ambient-death-metal classic in waiting. Taking inspiration from Italian partigiani and the counter attack of the anti-Vichyists, Hecker has issued a salvo against all tourists of melancholy; from trustafarian pseudo-leftists to the Ikea nihilists of the boboist rive droite. While some artists seem eager to explore new age or 'organic' solutions to electronic music, Hecker solves the Rubik's cube and penetrates the liquid magma, revealing the truths of dirty sodium light pollution, love on the rocks, and tooth hunting in the garden of evil. With its motifs of eroticism and torture, militancy, and ecstatic pain, Mirages also points backwards towards the Viking penchant for fighting and feasting. Don't be mistaken by insufficient musical descriptors: it is also surprisingly tender, like the fresh skin of a new lover. Indeed, Hecker demonstrates a penchant for the romantic by drawing in a den of noteworthy interlocutors into this work, including fellow Montréalers le Fly Pan Am, Christof Migone, David Bryant, as well as his Australian compatriot Oren Ambarchi."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Radio Amor
Label:	ALIEN8 RECORDINGS (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	ALIEN 066CD

2007 reissue of this album, originally released by Mille Plateaux. "Misplaced nautical charts, trade winds, shortwave miscommunication, midnight whispers, amorxxx. Alien8 Recordings is reissuing Radio Amor, originally released on Mille Plateaux in 2002, in order to maintain the availability of the works of one of our label's most important artists. The recording has been out of print for two years now, out of grasp of Hecker's growing legions of admirers. Hecker is still basking in the universally glowing reception of this year's Harmony in Ultraviolet on Kranky (Score 8.7 / Best New Music on Pitchfork), the follow-up to 2004's Mirages on Alien8 Recordings. Radio Amor is a key release in Hecker's discography, bridging his output between our Haunt Me (2001) and My Love is Rotten to the Core (EP, 2002) releases and 2004's Mirages. Radio Amor is a brilliant soundtrack for daydreaming, and Tim Hecker's effective variations on a few central ideas once again show a gifted composer at work."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again
Label:	ALIEN8 RECORDINGS (CANADA)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	ALIEN 089LP

"Now, for the first time on vinyl, Haunt Me is available as a clear vinyl double LP, packaged in a full-color gatefold sleeve, and limited to 750 copies. Tim Hecker needs much less of an introduction today than he did when he released his debut recording Haunt Me nearly ten years ago; he now easily holds his own with top tier electronic artists from around the world. Despite its age, the album remains interesting and vital. While not nearly as complex as more recent outings such as Harmony in Ultraviolet and Imaginary Country, it gives a very clear view into the artist's approach and style. Haunt Me is a beautifully arranged record that sees nine compositions spread out over twenty tracks that have been woven together to form one long extended piece of music. This method has become standard on the recordings by Hecker that followed Haunt Me and is an excellent method to deeply immerse the listener in the work. At the time of Haunt Me's release, Pitchfork championed Tim Hecker as one of North America's best kept secrets, scoring the album an impressive 8.6 on 10, and they have continued to support the artist's endeavors ever since. On Haunt Me, Hecker is often riding a fine line between ambient and noise. During one interlude, he is utilizing a cascading wave of distortion and throbbing bass, just as it starts to become the slightest bit oppressive. Gears are quickly shifted and the high-end harmonies and feedback are quickly giving way to more lush passages in the vein of early Stars of the Lid. Tim Hecker very quickly learned the technique of blending the ebb and flow of soft and hard sound and he continues to work towards perfecting this technique today."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Harmony in Ultraviolet
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 102CD

"Harmony in Ultraviolet is Tim Hecker's sixth album. It is a continuation of Hecker's interest in spectral communications, noise, impressionist musics, thresholds of listening pleasure/pain, and the limits of digital composition. This album is a significant development of his song-craft, challenging the usefulness of descriptors such as ambient, drone, metal, noise and even electronic music. If references are necessary it could be described as a sonata for the elements, songs of crackling embers, tidal pools, spruce skylines and autumn winds. Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings are also a fair orientation. Materially speaking, it is a record of whirring drones, whispering fissures, dense disintegrating chords, late-night noise and truth-telling harmonics. Yet this record follows no overarching process, no underlying narrative. It is both a homage for the Italian partigiani and also not at all. It is songs about ghost writing and midnight whispers but then again it isn't. In many ways this album can be viewed as a work of total destruction, embracing indeterminacy as an aesthetic ideal."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Harmony In Ultraviolet
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	2LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 102LP

"This is the first proper vinyl release for Tim Hecker's breakthrough 2006 album. At the time of original issue, there was a small run of a few hundred vinyl copies done by a small German label, but this was pressed on an inferior sounding single LP which was much too short for the length of the album, not to mention the wide dynamic range of the recording. This new version is mastered at 45rpm over four sides for maximum sound quality." Full color gatefold sleeve.

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	An Imaginary Country
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 130CD

"An Imaginary Country continues from the trajectory of his last album, the critically acclaimed Harmony in Ultraviolet, while also showing a few new tricks. Tim has incorporated more pulses into this work and also works with a sound palette including overdriven mellotron strings and synthesizer. At times this album is less overtly aggressive than previous works, but the notion that this is pastoral work would be dead wrong as there are plenty of the agitated crescendos that he is know for. This music backs off from the void of immensity in favor of a terrain of lushness and warmth. This heat, this work of musical abstraction, is largely made possible by the tools of digital technology that he employs. It is a means of musical production that allows for the obliteration of questions of representation or instrumentation. Strings, synthesizers, pianos and guitars all fade away into the fog of what they once were. A tropical mist (or a northerly breeze) of sound is also a musical resonance of imagination. The title comes from a quote, 'The imaginary country? one that cannot be found on a map,' uttered by Debussy in regards to the sad state of musical affairs at the time, arguing that music was in dire need for alternate worlds of possibility. In some ways this is a utopian work, in the sense of the term meaning that of 'no-place'. All the tracks are landmarks in a dream cartography. With this album Tim Hecker expands his palette as well as his range, further cementing his reputation as a singular and significant entity in the world of contemporary music."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Ravedeath, 1972
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 154CD

"Tim Hecker's latest work approaches a form of secular musical transcendentalism from within the battered temple of spirituality. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this new piece is essentially a live recording. In reality, it exists in a nether world between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice as a unity. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine. While the title of the piece 'Hatred of Music' might be a clue, the album is also partly an attempt to confront a pervasive negativity surrounding music. Historical rituals of destroying pianos, mountains of pirated CDRs pushed by bulldozers in Eastern Europe, or the melancholy of the digital music era began as sideline motifs which quickly informed the work on this record. They also really didn't at all. Despite that the context is wide open in such a form of musical abstraction, the substance of these immersive compositions showcases Hecker's continued mastery of organizing sound into a visceral near entity. It is an almost physical presence that the listener feels as much as hears. This work is a significant contribution to Hecker's oeuvre, one which spans over ten years of musical production. Ravedeath is an enigmatic document of beauty and force. The album was recorded mostly over the period of one day in July of 2010. Iceland-based musician Ben Frost assisted with the engineering and performs on this recording."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Ravedeath, 1972
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	2LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 154LP

Gatefold 2LP version. "Tim Hecker's latest work approaches a form of secular musical transcendentalism from within the battered temple of spirituality. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this new piece is essentially a live recording. In reality, it exists in a nether world between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice as a unity. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine. While the title of the piece 'Hatred of Music' might be a clue, the album is also partly an attempt to confront a pervasive negativity surrounding music. Historical rituals of destroying pianos, mountains of pirated CDRs pushed by bulldozers in Eastern Europe, or the melancholy of the digital music era began as sideline motifs which quickly informed the work on this record. They also really didn't at all. Despite that the context is wide open in such a form of musical abstraction, the substance of these immersive compositions showcases Hecker's continued mastery of organizing sound into a visceral near entity. It is an almost physical presence that the listener feels as much as hears. This work is a significant contribution to Hecker's oeuvre, one which spans over ten years of musical production. Ravedeath is an enigmatic document of beauty and force. The album was recorded mostly over the period of one day in July of 2010. Iceland-based musician Ben Frost assisted with the engineering and performs on this recording."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Dropped Pianos
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 161CD

"This Tim Hecker release is composed of sketch pieces recorded in 2010 in preparation for what would become the Ravedeath, 1972 album. All of the compositions are piano driven and minimal in nature. This is not a new Tim Hecker album, but rather a peek behind the curtains into the working process. That these pieces stand on their own as compelling soundworks is a testament to the fact that Tim Hecker is at the absolute top of his game at the moment, and has been for years."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Dropped Pianos
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	LP
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 161LP

LP version. "This Tim Hecker release is composed of sketch pieces recorded in 2010 in preparation for what would become the Ravedeath, 1972 album. All of the compositions are piano driven and minimal in nature. This is not a new Tim Hecker album, but rather a peek behind the curtains into the working process. That these pieces stand on their own as compelling soundworks is a testament to the fact that Tim Hecker is at the absolute top of his game at the moment, and has been for years."

Artist:	HECKER, TIM
Title:	Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again
Label:	SUBSTRACTIF (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	SUBSF 003CD

2010 repress, digipak edition. "Tim Hecker is not be confused with Mego's Florian Hecker, but is rather the alter ego of techno maverick Jetone. As Jetone he has released a full length for Pitch cadet as well as the album Ultamarin for Force Tracks. There are certainly similarities to the likes of Angelo Badalamenti, Fennesz, Gas and Oval, but overall the sound is incredibly unique. Tim Hecker has managed to create some of the most memorable ambient music in the last few years. Much like the Austrian guitar/lap top experimentalist Fennesz, Hecker has perfected the art of catchy experimental ambient music. The recording is comprised of 17 tracks that blend seamlessly into one another, making it perfect for headphone listening or as background music. At times glitch-based minimalism, but also capturing the drama of post rock. Incredibly sad, yet hopeful music that sticks in your head for hours."

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